Thursday, July 21, 2011

40 Days of Now: Day 10

(This post is part of a series. If you'd like to know what it's all about, go here.)



Hi. I think I love you. I know I love you, totally and unashamedly. I know this because I'm about to show you the most disgusting part of my house. We have a big utility sink in our garage which drains out right into a hole in the middle of the floor. I have never bothered to clean this little area in the four years since we have lived here. It's real classy lookin'. Despite that, it's not usually an area of interest to the kids. So when all three of them were huddled around the hole today, making excited little noises, I naturally shoved my way through the crowd to see what all the commotion was about.

"Mommy, it's a plant! A little plant is growing!" Sure enough, there it was. An innocent, hopeful little seedling, bursting with life, right there in the darkest, slimiest part of the house. Oh, what a picture of hope, I thought. So, I took a picture of the picture of hope. And the flash on my camera illuminated some things that I couldn't even see until I downloaded the pictures.
Millipedes! Cobweb! Unidentifiable Gunk! How do you like that? I super-sized it, so you could see the millipedes, 'cause I know you really want to see them. They're on the left, crawling around the side. They're black. I didn't know they were there! I don't know why that kind of creeps me out. Bugs don't usually bother me. Also, check out the dried up old worms laying by the edge of the hole. Have you had enough? 'Cause I'm just getting started here. I mean, is that a dead granddaddy long legs there? I walk by this hole every day. Maybe I should clean it. Next week.

Okay, it's time to get serious. This little seedling, growing up out of the depths of a nasty hole, is a great reminder of the power of the new life we have in Christ! It is resurrection life! A life redeemed from the pit.

Oh, God of Life, only You can bring life out of death, hope out of hopelessness. You bring beauty out of our ashes. You lift us up out of the slime of our circumstances and shine Your light on us.  You clear out the cobwebs, and sweep away the stench of decay. You make us new! You make us new! My heart rejoices over You. ~R









Beautiful Things
Gungor

All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all

All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make me new, You are making me new





3 comments:

  1. Jesus, I was looking for you talking to a friend. Where are you? She loves you and has lived/lives her life for you. Yet she wonders where you are in her family lineage--family patterns of struggle with relationships, finances and despair. Patterns that repeat themselves generationally. I prayed to see you. I prayed for her to see you. On the other side of ugly you are there. I see green growth in the dirty drain...like in this picture. I saw an answered prayer..a specific prayer--that You would send a warm flesh and blood christian friend who could touch her and pray for her in a dark part of the country where she now lives. That was 6 months ago I began that prayer and today I saw a green plant--a specific answer to that prayer as she shared about a christian neighbor who has been coming over and praying for her. Jesus, I see you holding onto to us when we can't hold on. I see you in writing and unveiling stories of redemption and hope.

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  2. No wonder! That's why life stinks sometimes...little milipedes and dead Daddy Long Legs. Thanks for unraveling that mystery for me. Seriously though, I love the metaphor of that picture. That's me, the little seedling trying to put down roots and grow into a mighty oak. Thankfully I am not the one doing the planting or rooting or tilling or weeding. But I am trying to obey the gardner and follow His leading. All while holding to a "calm delight". :)
    Love you friend!
    Amber

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  3. Wow. I'm choked up thinking about the new life He brings out of the mess. What a great song... never heard it before. Thank you, friend.

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